"This means #CALottery has made its FIRST EVER billionaire," the California Lottery said in a tweet.
[Ads /]
The winning ticket was sold at Joe's Service Center on West Woodbury Road in Altadena, officials said. Three others tickets, matching 5 numbers but missing the Powerball number, were sold in Gardena, Beaumont and San Francisco.
The numbers for the record-breaking $2.04 billion Powerball jackpot were drawn Tuesday morning after a nearly 10-hour delay.
At a news conference Tuesday morning, the owners of the gas station in Altadena said they don't know who purchased the ticket, but they hope it was someone from the community.
"They have to realize it," said Carolyn Becker, spokesperson for the California Lottery, of the winner and that piece of paper. "It's possible they know by now, they will soon enough if they watch the news and they need to keep it safe. This is probably, second to their family, their most prized possession so the most important thing is to keep it safe. You do need your ticket to claim that prize."
That person has up to a year to come forward and claim their prize.
[Ads /]
The numbers for the drawing held at the Florida Lottery draw studio in Tallahassee were: white balls 10, 33, 41, 47 and 56, and the red Powerball was 10.
The jackpot was by far the largest lottery prize ever won, topping the previous record $1.586 billion prize won by three Powerball ticketholders in 2016. Only four previous jackpots have topped $1 billion, but none of those are close to the current prize, which started at $20 million back on Aug. 6 and over three winless months has grown massive. No one has won the jackpot since Aug. 3.
The jackpot was initially reported as an estimated $1.9 billion on Monday, but the prize was increased to $2.04 billion Tuesday morning after updated calculations.
The Multi-State Lottery Association said Monday night's scheduled drawing was delayed by nearly 10 hours until Tuesday because a participating lottery had issues processing sales.
The problems in holding a drawing Monday night were blamed on one participating lottery's inability to process its sales data. After the lottery, which wasn't identified, completed its pre-draw procedures, the drawing was able to go ahead.
[Ads /]
"Protecting the integrity of the draw is of upmost importance, and we were able to do that during this historic drawing with the cooperation of all participating lotteries," said Drew Svitko, the chairman of the Powerball Product Group and executive director of the Pennsylvania Lottery.
The $2.04 billion prize is for a winner who chooses an annuity, paid annually over 29 years. Nearly all winners instead opt for cash, which was valued at $997.6 million.
The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million.
¿Quieres leer este artículo en español? Haz clic aquí
The Associated Press contributed to this report.